Tuesday morning marked three weeks since I had my right shoulder surgery.

The ‘technical” term for the operation is “Joint Resurfacing”, but in reality it is really a joint replacement of sorts.

The head of my humerus is gone.

Replaced.

Or resurfaced.

My glenoid fossa is still there, with some recontouring.

People ask me what did I do to my shoulder joint to wear it out.

Who knows?

No more than any other healthy kid did.

But I sure as eggs know that hanging a dental mirror out in my right arm for thirty two years, thirty six hours per week surely did not help.

So far I’ve had three weeks of rehabilitation and physiotherapy.

And this is the interesting part.

It’s tough.

Real tough.

There are times I wish that I could just snap my fingers and cross my arms and blink my eyes like Barbara Eden used to and my shoulder would be better again.

But that’s not going to do it.

There are times when I’m lying on the floor on my back slowly sliding a walking stick from left to right for a distance that feels like millimetres, wishing to heck I could just swing the darn thing the way a drum major swings his baton, or mace.

But I can’t.

Yet.

And there are the pulleys.

It’s no fun sitting on a chair pulling pulleys up and down, knowing that my good shoulder can go up real high, but my “new” shoulder can only be raised so far….

And then, or now, there’s the “walk the fingers” up the wall and down the wall.

My physiotherapist says I’m making good progress.

But it’s a long long road.

I guess the road to rehabilitation for my shoulder is just like the road to rehabilitation for the Dental Practice.

Firstly, there was the recognition that something was wrong.

My shoulder was not doing what it was meant to do.

And it was not performing in the same way as other shoulders.

And the difference was both palpable and painful.

I needed help.

Sure I could have soldiered on.

Sure I could have read books, tried alternate therapies that masked the condition….

But I needed specialist help.

The underperforming joint needed replacement.

And with that, the new joint, once in place, required training, consistent training, and the right training, to get me back to where I know I can perform.

Shoulder resurfacing, or replacement, is not like “The Terminator”.

It’s not a simple robotic replacement.

You don’t wake up with a totally functioning brand new shoulder, as if the old shoulder was just a bald tyre.

Recovery, improvement and rehabilitation take time.

I needed to start off with baby steps, under the guidance of a trained professional, the physiotherapist.

Reading a book, listening to others, was not going to cut it.

And with a new shoulder, you have to crawl before you walk before you run.

My shoulder can move well in certain directions but not all directions.

But I know, with consistent exercise by me, in the right direction, between visits to the physiotherapist, it will get better and stronger over time.

I know that wishing it to get better is not an answer.

Hope is never a solution.

You can’t hope that your Dental Practice will get better.

You can’t wish that the Terminator will visit and simply replace your faulty old parts with functional new parts and all will be honky dory.

If I don’t do the physio, my joint will seize up.

My shoulder will hitch and I’ll be back to where I started from.

And that’s just stupid to even contemplate that pathway.

But in the practice of Dentistry, the practice of life, there are educated people who don’t do the small exercises NOW that result in massive massive benefits down the track.

They just plain hope.

Wish.

If hitting a golf ball was that easy there’d be no golf coaches and teachers.

Just golf magazines, books and blogs.

And the rest of us would be pros.

Ha. Ha.

If we want to hit a golf ball pure, we need the right help.

It’s not an overnighter.

If we want to get our shoulder back to optimal performance, we need the right help.

And training.

If we want to get our Dental Office back on track we need the right help.

Not just wishing….

You can’t just wish it.

And you can’t just hope your practice will get better by reading articles and books alone.

You’ve got to put in the yards yourself, too.

You need the right advice, regular advice.

But you need to do your exercises between lessons.

Actions is what makes for changes and results.

Not just knowledge.

But it needs to be the right action. Supervised action…

If you really want the best results…

Otherwise, you’re really only hoping….

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Email me at david@theupe.com

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